As you may know, our church theme for 2026 is “Increase Our Faith.” As I’ve been thinking about this theme, something that came to mind is that a part of increasing our faith is also about increasing our vision. So what does it mean to increase our vision?
One of the verses that stands out to me about this is from Romans 12:2. Along with being one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, it is also one of our memory verses at LifeSpring. It says,
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
So what is the “pattern of this world” that Paul is talking about here? I like to think of it as the story the world tells us. It’s the story the world tells us about what is valuable, what goals to have, what is worth pursing, and so on. The world tells us that if we do the right things and meet the right milestones–whether they are finances milestones, work, travel, possessions–we would have achieved a life worth living.
But the Bible presents us with a very different story. I think John 1:1-5 is one of the best summaries of this story.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
The Bible presents us with a very different story from the world’s story. The biblical story revolves around Jesus, the Word became flesh. It’s the story of how all things came into being through Jesus.
When Siang Yang spoke last week, he mentioned something memorable. In speaking about increasing our faith, he said that we often try to have big faith, but we have a small God. What we need instead is small faith, in a big God.
Many of us tend to have a small God. We try to fit God into the small corners of our lives. We become content with living in the pattern of the world, and fitting God in the space that is left over.
What we need instead is just a bit of faith–a small faith–in a very big God. This is the God who brought life into being, and brought light into the world. Our God has his own story about what is truly good, about what true light is, and what kind of life is worth living.
What we need is vision into our place in God’s story. We need God to increase our vision for our own lives, away from a life that simply follows the pattern of the world, and into a life that is truly meaningful–a life that is a part of God’s greater plan.
My prayer for us as a LifeSpring family is that God would give us the courage and the grace to take that first step to live into God’s plan.